


Fries before Guys (except not really)

by riverblujay



Series: sanders sides guard au [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marching Band, Colorguard AU, Gen, Roman loves french fries, very mild cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 21:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14317782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riverblujay/pseuds/riverblujay
Summary: “So,” Roman said as he munched on a fry, “are you all enjoying yourselves so far?”“I guess,” Virgil mumbled, but his face showed that he was actually enjoying himself is one looked hard enough. “It’s kinda hot, though.”“We live in Florida,” Logan replied in a deadpan tone. Patton started chuckling.or: it's freshman year. getting to know each other involves 1) lunch and 2) making fun of logan





	Fries before Guys (except not really)

**Author's Note:**

> fyi this series will not be written in chronological order but I might just make a timeline in the notes section or rearrange as I post I haven't decided yet

“So,” Roman said as he munched on a fry, “are you all enjoying yourselves so far?” 

He and the three other boys in his grade had decided to all eat lunch together. Seeing as they were all freshman on the first day of band camp, Roman had asked the other two besides Logan to join them at McDonald’s. (Yes, he knew perfectly well it wasn’t healthy, thank you very much, _Logan._ ) 

The four were sitting at a booth, stuff spread out and taking up the entirety of the space. Logan, ever the health nut, had brought his own lunch and was simply sitting with Roman, Patton, and Virgil, but Roman and the other two of the group had all bought what could be considered an unhealthy amount of the fast food- he was particularly fond of fries. 

“I guess,” Virgil mumbled, but his face showed that he was actually enjoying himself if one looked hard enough. “It’s kinda hot, though.”

“We live in Florida,” Logan replied in a deadpan tone. Patton started chuckling, which led to Roman laughing as well. Soon all four were attracting stares as they all ended up laughing until their sides hurt. Well, some stares. The restaurant was mostly filled with other band kids on their hour and a half lunch break, and to be honest band kids were weird in general. The band kids in the restaurant were also almost all freshman, since the McDonald’s was within a reasonable walking distance from the high school. The juniors and seniors who could drive had gone farther off campus, for the most part. 

“How long have you been doing dance?” Patton asked Roman after the four’s laughter had gotten under control. “You’re really good. You have to have been doing it for a while.”

“Yeah, about… oh, six years?” 

“That is indeed a long time,” Logan commented, somewhat sarcastically. 

“I know,” Roman replied to his friend with a hint of sass himself. Roman and Logan had been best friends and neighbors for longer than Roman had been doing dance. Most people didn’t see it right away, but Logan actually enjoyed being a little shit. “Do any of you have any dance experience?” He asked Patton and Virgil.

Virgil immediately answered. “Nope,” and then forcefully dipped one of his chicken nuggets into ketchup and took a bite. 

“Not really. Like, two years when I was in elementary school, but then I never got back into it after we moved.” Two of the three turned to look at Patton. “I was not aware you had moved before. Where did you live?”

“Oh, he’s lived a bunch of places,” Virgil said around his food. Logan wrinkled his nose at the sight. “Please chew _and swallow_ your food.” He simply shrugged, but did swallow before continuing. “How many places was it, Pat?”

“I moved five times before starting middle school, but after we came here we haven’t moved again,” Patton said. “That’s when I met Virge, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Roman was intrigued. Moving five times before starting middle school? As someone who had lived in the same house his entire life, it was hard to imagine. He thought about how he had met Logan, who up until starting guard had been his best friend, not to mention one of his _only_ friends. Most people looked at the two and didn’t understand how they could be best friends. Which made a little bit of sense, Roman supposed. After all, from the outside, he and Logan were polar opposites, seemingly arguing about everything. Roman was very passionate and dramatic, where Logan was logical and realistic. Logan’s favorite subject was science, where Roman’s was English. He read fantasy novels, while Logan read scientific journals and nonfiction.

But those people didn’t see the similarities, because they didn’t want to. The two had met in second grade, when Logan moved into the house next door to Roman’s. Looking at him now, many would think him to be the popular kid, friends with everyone and not a loner in the least. 

In second grade though, he hadn’t really had that. Of course, second grade wasn’t like that anyways, but he didn’t have that _best friend_ the way a lot of kids did. 

Despite their initial differences, being neighbors had led to many sleepovers between him and Logan. They knew everything about each other, and being different from the other meant they were more like two sides of the same coin than others realized, or maybe a magnet, where ‘opposites attract.’ 

“Where have you lived?” Logan asked, beating him to the question.

“I was born in Ohio, and a lot of my family still lives there. When I was three, we moved to Texas, then after almost two years we moved to Colorado. After, like, three years there, we moved to Virginia, but we only stayed there for a few months. Then we lived in Texas again, but in a different city than the first time, and a month after I started sixth grade we moved here!”

“Yep,” Virgil interjected. “Patton’s lived all over.”

“Not all over,” The person in question replied. "Just a few places.” 

“Well, it’s more places than I’ve ever lived," Roman stated. "Or even traveled through. I’ve lived in the same house my entire life.”

Logan dipped his stick of celery into ranch as he said, “I was born in Indiana, but moved here in second grade.”

The last member of their group sighed. “Aww, I feel kinda boring now. I’m the same as Sir Sing-A-Lot over here, I was just zoned for a different elementary and middle school than most of the kids.”

Roman made a face. “Sir Sing-A-Lot? Also did you just indirectly call me boring?” Virgil winked at him and made finger guns at Roman while clicking his tongue. “Well,” He told the other dramatically, “I like that nickname, and I’m going to use that now, so there. My Chemically Imbalanced Romance,” he tacked on at the end. It was totally worth it to see the eye roll and general look of disdain. 

Logan checked his watch. “We have twenty minutes before we need to be back up at the school. I suggest we start walking back soon.”

“Ugh, I can’t wait to do something besides learning marching basics. Like, yes, I know it’s important, especially since we’re freshman and we have to learn how to march, but I’d much rather be doing dance.”

“I can’t wait for equipment block.”

“Yes, we know, Virgil, you love spinning.”

“I admit under duress that I’m enjoying guard more than I thought I would.”

“See!” Patton exclaimed. “Aren’t you glad I made you try out?”

“Yeah, yeah,” He sighed. “I hope we get to watch the upperclassmen spin rifle. It looks so awesome. I can’t wait to learn it.”

“I saw some of them spinning- sabre, I think it’s called- earlier. Throwing swords in the air looks really badass, I must say,” Roman said with a flourish. Logan made a face of agreement. “Yes, I am also intrigued by sabre.”

“Well,” Patton interjected. “I’m really liking flag so far.” He stood up. “Let’s get going, kiddos. We don’t want to be late.”

“Kiddos? Really, Pat?” Virgil groaned. 

Patton semi-aggressively pointed a finger at Virgil. “I am three weeks older than you, therefore, you are indeed a ‘kiddo.’”

“How do you know if you’re older than Roman and Logan, though?” By now, Roman and the other two had stood as well and the four had started walking towards the trash can. They reached it and threw their trash away, then exited the building. As they walked, they kept the conversation going. 

“When is your birthday?” Logan asked.

Virgil sighed. “Mine is April 5th, and his is March 15th. Three weeks exactly.”

“Sorry to disappoint, but mine is April 2nd.” Roman replied. 

“Oof, you really dodged a bullet there,” Virgil smirked. Roman chuckled. “Yeah, my mom always says I exited the womb being more dramatic than necessary. Considering I was born at 12:02 AM, I guess I have to agree with her.”

Logan was frowning. “Do I have to say my birthday?” 

Roman was snickering. “Yes.”

“This is not satisfactory.”

“Tough,” Roman said. “Go on,” he teased. His friend sighed. “Fine.”

Logan was biting his lip. And was taking an unnecessarily long pause- definitely stalling. “If you don’t tell them, I will, you nerd.”

“Now Roman,” Patton chided. “He doesn’t have to tell us if he really doesn’t want to.”

“But now I’m really curious,” Virgil remarked.

“Ugh,” Logan exclaimed. “My birthday is February 29th, okay?”

Roman started full out cackling. It had taken him years to learn his friend’s birthday, mostly because practically from the minute Logan had met him he had known Roman would find the fact that Logan was technically three absolutely hilarious. Roman giggled as he told the others, “He wouldn’t tell me when it was for literal years. Like, three, at least.”

“Because the moment I met you I knew you would react like this.”

“Like what?” Roman teased with a shit-eating grin. “Also,” he pointed out, “We’re here.”

Logan checked his watch again. “We have about thirteen minutes before we need to be in the gym for afternoon block.”

As they entered the band hall, Virgil sarcastically cried, “Yay. Another three hours of color guard. So pumped.” Roman raised an eyebrow at Virgil, as did Patton and Logan. “What?” Virgil raised an eyebrow back. 

“I think we already covered that you’re probably not as sarcastic about that as you just sounded.”

“Fight me, Logan.”

“Nobody should be fighting anyone,” Patton rushed to say. Meanwhile, Roman had already gone to pick up his flag. “Anyone else want to practice? Surly Temple? Pocket protector? Patton?”

“Why is Patton the only one that doesn’t get an insulting nickname?” Virgil grumbled, but moved to pick up his flag nonetheless.

“Oh, no, I can assure you, Roman calls me ‘pocket protector’ quite often. I believe he thinks ‘insulting nicknames,’ as you called them, are terms of endearment that one should give to friends,” Roman could hear Logan reassure the other boy. 

They all made their way back to the gym commons and started to practice. Roman saw Virgil practice a few drop spins but very quickly move on to tosses. He and the other two hadn’t been kidding when trying to tell Virgil that he was, in fact, good at this. He seemed to have a natural talent, taking to equipment like a duck to water. Roman tried to hide it, but he was really quite amazed. He had talent when it came to dance, and some of it was natural flexibility, but that talent had been years in the making and was mostly the result of perseverance and hard work. 

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If Roman wanted to keep up, he would simply have to do what he had always done.

Practice.

He started drop spins again, counting to himself under his breath, “Five, six, five, six, squeeze, push and one…”

Roman _would_ be good at this. He _would_ give his all. He would never give anything less.

**Author's Note:**

> whoops my hand slipped
> 
> I think this is the most I've posted in the shortest amount of time. This AU basically writes itself for me, which is great, but also problematic because I have a paper to write that I still haven't finished (rip). A huge thanks to everyone who wished me luck at my last high school competition ever!!! We got a 73.06, the highest our show scored all season (which is quite surprising, considering it was at wgi, and wgi scores are typically lower). We didn't make semis, but we still had a great time. (We played laser tag, and we take our laser tag very seriously. black face paint and heavy eyeliner were involved. I also lost a lot.)
> 
> idk how I feel about this ending tbh (or the title) but I'm just gonna roll with it. writing from Roman's POV is hard for me (maybe???) but I've already got like two other installments started from Virgil's POV, so I definitely want to explore the others' POVs as well. 
> 
> Also, someone said they wanted to make art for audition and I was??? wow??? Like, this series is me projecting some of my guard experiences onto the sides (but also a very different version of the real events) and you all seem to really like it??? So thank you to everyone, especially you guys that have commented!!! I love hearing from you (especially since a lot of the people that are reading this have probably been in guard/band themselves). Don't feel too shy to say hi to me on tumblr, either my [Sanders sides blog](https://www.pastelvirgil.tumblr.com) or on my [main](https://www.riverblujay.tumblr.com).
> 
> ((I know that the birthdays aren't in canonical order or anything but I wanted Virgil's to be early April (some of you might know why...) and I wanted Patton to be only a few weeks older than him. I also just loved the idea of Roman's birthday being _almost_ on April fools, and the idea of Logan being a leap baby was fucking hilarious to me. fight me but at the same time this is my au so I can do what I want.))


End file.
